


Heroes

by pollybywater



Category: The X-Files
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-04
Updated: 2005-10-04
Packaged: 2017-10-19 07:06:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/198226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pollybywater/pseuds/pollybywater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fox, Alex, and an attempted hijacking, along with a plane full of big damn heroes...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> When I offered Bianca a story and she asked if I could hijack Alex and Fox's plane, my eyes kinda went 0.0 There's some classic hijack fic out there. This isn't, lol. There will be derivative phrases in here, like familiar nicknames for various characters that didn't originate with me but are so well-loved they are now fanon. If you used it and I liked it then try to look at it like I'm carrying on your torch not trying to plagiarize you. Because I can't remember who said what first, to be honest

_I knew this was a bad idea to begin with._ "Fly to Paris, Krycek. This is the last time, Krycek. We need you there, Krycek." _Christ, I was a fucking idiot for going along with this._

He'd been ordered to oversee the dismantling of the Consortium's last European projects.

 _I tried to tell them this was a bad idea._ He'd pointed out that since he was supposed to be dead, he'd be taking a risk jetting off to Europe and wandering around 'Gay Paree' like a thousand other tourists. _Especially for something as stupid as making sure all the right bodies got buried. Fuckers should have done their own dirty work._

Naturally, that hadn't gotten him out of doing it. _When the Resistance says bend over I don't even ask for lube._ Kinda messed up his bargaining power.

 _Not to mention the not-so-subtle "we brought you back to life, Krycek, we can kill you again" message they're constantly giving me. Traded one set of masters for another._

He sighed.

Shortly after boarding the flight, his conviction that this was stupid, foolhardy, and poorly planned was reinforced when he'd spotted a distinctive profile at the front of the plane. He'd ducked, pretending to fiddle with his laptop while the business passengers were welcomed on board and herded through first class.

 _Mulder. Jesus God, could this get any worse?_

Why the hell hadn't he remembered that it could always, **always** get worse where he was concerned?

 _A paranoid man might think this entire thing was engineered._

Alex Krycek was a paranoid man. He had to be.

 _I wanted it to be a coincidence._

It would have been the kind of coincidence that made atheists doubt their position.

He was furious when he thought about it. Yeah, the resistance was trying to bury all the bodies, all right. He and Mulder were two of the biggest ones in the thwarted colonization. They knew too much.

 _Mulder's publisher would have sprung for first class. He must have been bumped._

To his eternal shame, Alex had been so busy trying to keep anybody from looking at him, he'd paid little attention to his companions in first class. _That was stupid. Every time I'm stupid, something awful happens._ The memory of lying down beside a fire in a Tunguska forest made him sigh again. _Not paranoid enough, Aleksandr. Tell yourself the truth, when Fox Mulder walked past you your fucking cock twitched, just like it always fucking does around him, and you were so busy trying to ignore it that you ignored everybody around you._

 _God damn it, I could smell him._

Alex had kept his head down; glad to be wearing camouflage - an expensive Italian suit and gold wire-rim glasses. That, along with the fact that he hadn't bothered to get a haircut lately, would prevent Mulder from noticing him.

***

It might have worked if he hadn't charged in like some kind of black knight to stop what happened later.

This time Alex sniffed out a quick laugh that made Mulder glare at him.

 _Nothing new about that._

"What's so funny, asshole?"

"Hey, Mulder, I saved your life- for about ten minutes. Can we mark off one of my many crimes against you?"

"Fuck you, Krycek."

"I wish we had. I always wanted to fuck you," Alex shocked everybody in earshot, including the two hijackers currently holding them at gunpoint. In the aisle of the business class section. On their knees, hands cuffed behind their backs.

Execution style.

They were somewhere over the Atlantic, held hostage against and for a plane load of innocent passengers and crew. Mulder was ostensibly the target and Krycek just collateral damage.

 _Like hell. Like I'd sit back and let them whack Mulder. I hope I can depend on you, Foxy._

He narrowed his eyes and flicked his eyelashes, indicating the guy standing behind Mulder.

Mulder's hard stare didn't soften, but Alex saw the flare of understanding in his eyes.

"I wanted to fuck you, too. For years, from back when we were partners. Shit, it feels like half my life sometimes. I don't care what you did any more, Alex. You helped bring the Consortium down too and what you had to do doesn't matter. The truth is out there and the planet is safe."

A stunned silence followed Mulder's bald words.

"Do you know who this is?" Alex asked the passengers, pitching his voice to carry while keeping it low. _Fucking Mulder always makes me act like some kind of Mexican revolutionary._ "This is Fox Mulder. You've seen him on TV, heard his name in the news. You know what he did for America and the world. The Senate hearings about the invasion ended three months ago. You know he wrote a book. It's about to be published and it's going to make a lot of powerful people very unhappy.

"Shut up, Krycek." This was accompanied by a smash of a weapon's butt against his face, almost knocking him over.

Almost, but not quite.

 _Surprised they let me talk this long. Amateurs. Good to know._

Lip bleeding, Alex straightened and held his head high.

"Hey, Mulder, it's a good day to die."

Mulder laughed.

"God damn it, I love you. I always did," he admitted, looking at Alex, who blinked in total shock and acted purely on instinct.

Moving like one, they surged upward and back, slamming their heads into the faces of the armed men behind them. Both staggered back instantly, Mulder's guy dropping his gun. Before Alex could finish his spin and get ready to kick, the hijackers were taken to the carpet by two other passengers.

An older woman grabbed up the loose automatic and handed it to an even older man beside her. He stepped in front of the woman, drawing down on the hijackers with remarkably professional ease.

"Don't try me, boys, I retired from the LAPD after thirty years. Just because that was a while ago doesn't mean I can't still use this."

The other hijacker froze and was swiftly disarmed. With remarkable speed, both men were mashed face-down on the aisle floor, gagged and held there by other passengers; one of whom was the copilot, who'd been grabbed and replaced by a third hijacker who was still in the cockpit.

"You need to stay safe. You might have to fly the plane," Alex found himself saying, tearing his eyes off Mulder's to look at the uniformed woman. His eyes flashed towards first class, glad of the plane noise that would have hopefully covered the scuffle.

"There could be more among the passengers in first class," he said to Mulder quietly and Mulder nodded, looking at the copilot seriously.

"I know," the copilot said, and quirked a grin at them both before looking at Alex. "Aren't you going to say it back?"

 _Jesus. Tell Mulder that I love him, too? Why the hell would he believe that, coming from me? Besides, he didn't mean it, did he? It was a ploy, to knock those guys off their stroke._

He bit his lip and dared a quick glance at Mulder, who was looking at him amusedly.

 _Yeah, it had to be a trick._

The hijackers were not-so-professionally searched by the passengers. Handcuff keys were located then passed over. Alex's cuffs were released by yet another passenger, a pale-faced teen-aged boy who moved nervously but was quick to free him and Mulder.

The cuffs were handed back and used with great efficiency by the retired cop to secure the hijackers, who were then jerked up and stuffed into seats by a couple of large football-player sized guys.

Just then, Mulder's hand came up and brushed the blood off his lip. Alex flinched before he could catch it.

Mulder's eyes darkened sadly.

"I didn't say that just to play them, or you. I'm sorry."

And Alex knew exactly what Mulder meant by that.

"We were on opposite sides ... you thought. I forgive you."

"Yeah. I forgive you, too," Mulder whispered.

"Just like that? You gotta be shitting me."

For a moment, everything was forgotten as Alex stared into those beautiful hazel eyes. Catching himself, he took a deep breath.

Mulder's thumb brushed over his lower lip again, and Alex somehow kept from licking it ... until Mulder lowered his hand. He saw Mulder's reaction to his search for Mulder's taste and wanted to moan when Mulder lifted his thumb to his own tongue.

 _So fucking hot. There's no time for this, Aleksandr. Be a professional._

"I think I can give you a break for helping save the world," Mulder added with a wry grin, his eyes making promises Alex wanted to keep.

 _I can't help it. You fuck me up every time you open your mouth. You always have._

Alex smiled. It felt so damned unfamiliar it almost hurt his face.

"Thanks, Mulder."

"So?" Mulder asked quietly, as they took the weapons, checked them over, and started for the first class section.

 _Fucking Butch and Sundance shit._

"Yeah, I love you, too." Alex heard himself confessing. He gasped, then - unforgivably - _blushed_.

"How you wanna handle this?" He asked, clearing his throat awkwardly. "They'll crash the plane if they have to, to take you out. That's probably what they planned anyway. This is just the kind of fucked up shit the resistance likes to pull. Make you the martyr both sides have always wanted you to be."

Mulder winced.

"Sorry," Alex muttered. _The truth hurts, tovarisch, we both know it._ "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, they're gonna whack me, too."

"How did they know you'd try to stop them?"

They alternated stealing peeks through the curtain that separated first class from the rest of the plane. The copilot was close behind them, as was the retired cop, the young man who'd opened the cuffs, and one of the football types.

 _Yeah, how **did** they know? Hell, I never kept it a secret that I wanted to protect Mulder._

"Can we talk about this later?" He asked, flushing again.

"We aren't going to waste time talking later," Mulder said, and Alex groaned quietly.

"You're gonna kill me in bed."

"Damn right I am. See anybody you know?"

Alex looked. There was no one he recognized, but that didn't mean anything. He hadn't recognized the other two hijackers, either. Two men near the cockpit were holding weapons and staring down the aisle, menacing sneers intimidating the other passengers.

"They would have contracted the job," he realized, shaking his head. _Shit, I would have noticed professionals if I'd been paying attention ... still, these jokers aren't top echelon._

"We wait until they come back here?" Mulder offered.

"Yeah. We can't sneak up on them."

It didn't take long. One guy used a radio, the plane made a sharp lurch – something they learned later was the pilot's quick thinking - and everyone standing was knocked off their feet. Alex fell on top of Mulder, who'd landed with a firm thud against football guy, who'd caught them both in a controlled fall. Alex kept hold of his weapon - Mulder dropped his - and by the time Alex got back up to his feet, pulled the curtain open, and focused through the screaming in first class, the two other hijackers were already being subdued.

 _People are less reluctant to get involved these days, I guess. That's good._

The cockpit door was flung open and a fifth armed man came bursting out, raising his weapon, targeting Alex and pulling the trigger. A bullet pinged off the bulkhead by Alex's ear as he started to duck.

 _Shit. Guess I could have done that more subtly._

Mulder knocked him to the floor just as the gun fired again. Alex heard the muffled thud and cried out even as Mulder grunted; cried out like **he'd** been the one hit.

 _No, no, no, no, no. Not now. This can't be happening now. Fucking heroes._

"Fox!"

Alex landed hard and rolled over, putting Mulder beneath him, covering Mulder; drawing on the guy and firing in the same smooth sequence of movements.

He didn't miss.

The last kidnapper crumpled in a bloody wet heap and one last hero among the passengers held the gun on a sixth man, one Alex hadn't known about.

There was a brief struggle – the gun went off just as the pilot emerged from the cockpit and helped subdue the sixth man.

Alex felt the bullet enter his chest with dull shock, the pain shredding him as he tried to breathe.

***

"Alex?"

He heard Mulder call his name and slowly opened his eyes; vision doubling as his eyes crossed over the mask that was covering his mouth and nose.

"Come on, babe, don't quit on me now."

 _When the hell did I close my eyes and who the hell is Fox calling babe?_

"Not quitting," he whispered painfully when he remembered what happened, feeling short of breath. Mulder was pale and anxious; his right arm wrapped with what looked like a blood soaked shirt.

"Welcome back." Mulder's expression cleared with relief when Alex met his eyes.

"You were hit!"

"Just my arm, I've got two," Mulder deadpanned, making Alex gape before he started snickering weakly.

 _Fuck, that hurts._

"You're a son of a bitch, Mulder."

" _Your_ son of a bitch." Mulder said, smiling sweetly at him before looking over to his other side. "Hold still and meet your doctor, Dena Chenault."

"Doctor of Veterinary Medicine," a big black-haired woman with kind sherry eyes grinned at him. "How bad is the pain, cher?"

 _Pretty fucking bad, thank you, lady. Can't believe you're not making rat jokes, Fox._

"Had worse. Lung shot?"

"Oui. You will stop talking now." Doctor Chenault settled the mask more firmly on his face and Mulder held up one hand when Alex opened his mouth.

He began to realize he was lying on the floor in the plane's galley. Several people were hovering anxiously nearby, to his distant surprise – most of the ones who had helped them earlier.

"Plane full of fucking heroes," he groused softly, pleased when Mulder's worried eyes lightened.

"And you're one of them, Krycek. I was- you looked like an avenging angel coming down that aisle but that was a stupid ass move."

"Yeah, well, it worked, both times." That was all Alex cared about. Fox Mulder was alive and well – mostly – so all was right with his world, pain or no pain.

"Where are we landing?"

"Lisbon. The hijackers are tied up in the back, you and I are the only casualties, and an ambulance crew is standing by. The bullet's still in your chest."

Alex nodded very slightly, pain washing over him in frightening waves. The wound was in his left side – at least, that's where it hurt the worst. If the slug had nicked a big artery he'd already be dead.

Knowing that wasn't the worst of it. The pain itself shot up his entire body, reawakening severed nerves that had been screaming intermittently for years.

"Hurts. Sorry. Wimp." He was glad the flight had reached the point of no return before all this happened. _You should be more macho, Aleksandr. Gonna have to talk to some people so this doesn't happen again._ "Call Skinner. You need protection."

"You're not a wimp. Go to sleep, Alex. The pressure changes are going to be rough. Just keep breathing, okay?"

Mulder was petting his jaw and Alex didn't want to dislodge that comforting touch.

"Do love you, Fox," he whispered, letting his eyes close.

 _Trust you, too, fucking God knows why._

***

The next time Alex roused awake, he found himself in a hospital room. He felt stoned off his ass with that good morphine haze and allowed himself to just lie there, slowly gaining full consciousness.

Mulder was dozing in a chair beside him, holding his hand, of all things. A clean white bandage wound around Mulder's upper arm; visible under the sleeve of the blue scrub top Mulder wore.

Alex had to smile.

 _Whatever happens next, this has been worth it._

He wiggled his fingers and Mulder woke with a start.

"You're awake! Let me call the nurse."

"Wait. You okay? Your arm?" He asked hoarsely.

"Six stitches. It was just a flesh wound," Mulder said, smiling back at him. "How do you feel?"

"Sore, kinda floaty. Not bad. Throat's scratchy. Chest hurts."

"They took you to surgery to remove the bullet, so you've been on a ventilator. You still have a chest tube. It has to stay in until your lung re-expands. The surgeon says if there are no complications it can come out tomorrow afternoon and you can leave the hospital the next day." Mulder's hand tightened on his; that face looking tense and pale. "You were out a long time. You scared me, baby."

 _Baby? Huh. That's ... sappy. Sweet, but sappy._

"Sorry ... babe."

"I forgive you, remember? I'm just glad you finally woke up. Now you'll remember me doing this."

Mulder bent over him, nose nudging the oxygen cannula on Alex's face, and kissed him with aching tenderness; silky tongue dipping into his mouth for a brief taste. He felt every inch of his body come to instant life, nerves humming with pleasure.

"It can't be this easy," he said on a sigh when those lips reluctantly parted from his.

"Krycek, only you would call any of this easy." Mulder scolded fondly, brushing his hair out of his face.

***

Alex was discharged from the hospital three days later. He and Mulder were offered a grand suite at the Lapa Palace, Lisbon's finest hotel. They were guests of the Portuguese government, which had granted them asylum during a brief little bedside ceremony that Alex barely recalled thanks to a pharmaceutical haze.

A couple of their fellow passengers had had cell phones- _something I should have considered before I told you I wanted to fuck you, Mulder_ -and events on the plane had been relayed to the world press.

Mulder showed him bits and pieces of the media blitz when he could stay awake long enough to appreciate it.

"We're gay heroes," Mulder had informed him at one point, giggling so hard about it that Alex had to snicker, too, although it hurt.

Mulder had philosophically pointed out that it would be a lot harder to have them killed if they were famous. Alex, who wasn't so sure, decided to let him have that little illusion.

During Alex's hospital stay, Mulder fielded calls from Skinner, Scully, Kersh, Reyes, and Doggett. He'd refused – at least in Alex's hearing - to apologize for his feelings for Alex or about anything else that had happened; suggesting instead that if his friends really cared, they'd concentrate on keeping him - and Alex - alive.

 _Bet that went over well with Little Red and Mount Baldy._

It wasn't too late for certain other things to come out; a fact Alex pointed out to a few of his resistance contacts as soon as he could hold a phone without dropping it or nodding off to sleep. 'Hands-off' status for them was successfully negotiated by the time Alex and Mulder were smuggled out of the hospital.

Alex kept waiting for Mulder to take off for Paris and his publicity tour ... but Mulder didn't leave him, not even when the hotel's doctor gave him a quick once-over and insisted he take it easy and rest.

Alex hadn't been able to wear his prosthetic since he'd been shot, but since he'd made the transition from injectable pain killers to oral meds just that morning, he was too tired, too sore, and too cranky to give a shit. He was exhausted by the time Mulder finally showed the doctor out and locked their door.

"You want room service?" Mulder asked a little awkwardly, watching him with worry in those hazel eyes.

 _Not unless you want me hurling all over this pretty room, Foxy._

"Maybe later," Alex said, uncomfortably aware this was essentially the first time they'd been alone together since everything happened; stolen moments in the hospital room aside. "You should get some rest, too. You haven't slept much."

"Good idea." Moving unceremoniously with the methodical deliberation people use when they refuse to be afraid to do something, Mulder stripped them both down to their boxer-briefs and took Alex to bed. If the sight of his stump bothered Mulder at all, Alex couldn't tell it. He was carefully positioned to avoid putting any pressure on his healing incisions, then Mulder spooned up behind him and held him close, gingerly propping his own sore arm on Alex's hip.

 _God, you're warm. I can't believe this is happening._

Unfortunately, this position put Alex's one arm beneath him. He tried not to let that bother him. He **never** slept on this side.

Mulder sighed from his toes up, a wealth of satisfaction in the sound. Alex let it distract him and tried to relax.

"Can we just take it as read that we both meant what we said on the plane and go straight to the post-coital snuggling?" Mulder asked, snuffling the back of Alex's neck.

"No coitus?" Alex asked disappointedly, genuinely curious, and felt Mulder grin.

"As soon as you're better, I promise."

 _Jesus Christ, you mean it, Fox._

Alex rubbed his ass luxuriously into Mulder's groin and sighed himself when he felt a semi-hardness fill into a hot iron bar against his buttocks.

 _Yeah, you're hung. I knew it. God, you feel good._

Mulder humped against him once then froze, hand tightening on Alex's hip ... and because he knew that had to hurt in Mulder's wounded arm, Alex stilled, his own erection wilting a bit.

"Bad Alex."

"I know. I'm sorry. No sex. I heard the doctor, too. Scully and Skinner must be relieved," he added wryly.

Because that had leaked out, too, the doctor's discharge instructions to Senhor Krycek. The hospital had protected them from direct contact by ambitious reporters, but a remarkable number of people seemed compelled to comment on their lives, starting with their fellow passengers and moving on to former acquaintances.

Alex, who'd always been one of the most private of individuals through choice and necessity, was frankly appalled to be the subject of so much public notoriety. He was equally appalled that every declaration he and Mulder had made to each other had also been faithfully passed along.

No one had made any official comment except the FBI. That agency merely released a statement to confirm that Alex Krycek was indeed a former employee and added there were no charges pending against the agent.

As public relations goes, that was huge, Alex had realized when he'd heard that. The FBI was taking advantage of his current popularity to make the agency look better by association. Their reputation had taken a battering during the Senate hearings.

The FBI's position had so many implications Alex still hadn't worked them all through – and they came to him at the worst possible times, he thought ruefully, as Mulder gradually relaxed behind him.

 _But it worked, I'm ignoring my cock and yours, babe, and thank God, you really want me._

"I'm an asshole."

"Yeah, but you're my asshole. What do you think about helping me investigate my next book? There are a lot of X-Files we could free-lance."

Alex found himself smiling, pure happiness a sudden warm and unfamiliar rush.

"'Krycek and Mulder, Paranormal Researchers In Chronic Kimchee.' For short we can call it-"

"-something like that. Smartass." Alex could hear Mulder's amusement. It sounded sweet to his ears.

"Gotta be 'Mulder and Krycek', though. Senior Partner here."

"Says who?"

"That would be me, junior. Don't move." Mulder's hand slid down carefully to fondle his cock and Alex hissed, holding himself motionless with the greatest of effort.

"Don't hurt your arm."

"You just be still." Mulder's hips rocked against his ass gently. The erection that prodded him – and Mulder had never gotten soft, pain or no pain - made Alex's muscles feel like water; making him ache. Mulder barely moved his hand, fist tightening erratically on Alex's cock.

"God."

"I know. It feels too good, it's not gonna take much. I've wanted you too long, Alex. Wanted your ass too long. The first time I looked into your eyes I thought you were too pretty to be straight. The first time I walked behind you, I wanted in your ass. But not this time. Just want to touch you. I like your cock. You're gonna feel so fucking good in me-"

And that was it; Alex was done.

Hips jerking involuntarily, he came hard, gasping so sharply it was almost a wordless shriek. The fact that it hurt just lent an edge to Alex's climax and made it stronger; until he was screaming inside with pleasure.

Fox jerked against him and moaned, muffling his lips on Alex's neck. Despite their briefs, Alex felt the heat of Mulder's come warming his ass. The sensation made him shudder with aftershocks, while his own come slicked Mulder's still-firm grip.

"Fox. My God." He panted shallowly, calming slowly. "I feel much better."

It was true, he was feeling no pain or anxiety now.

Mulder snickered into his nape, the little puffs of air tickling Alex's faintly damp skin.

"I bet you do. Endorphins are a wonderful thing."

"I've wanted you just as long," Alex said after a moment.

"I just knew you should have been mine," Mulder explained eventually.

"I always was."

"Wow, that's pretty sappy."

"Heroes and sappy go together."

"If you start singing 'Wind Beneath My Wings' I'm gonna kick your ass, Krycek, staples or not."

Alex was still laughing inside as he drifted off into sleep.

End 4 Oct 05


End file.
